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This game is available to order through the Just Adventure + Store section. Introduction
Let's get specific. Story
The intro shows your bride-to-be finishing a conversation with a mysterious stranger. Some arrangement has been made, but what? She is not happy, but puts it behind her and goes forward with the wedding. It is now five years later, your anniversary. You go to meet your dearly beloved, but instead find a message from the mysterious stranger. She is with him now and the only way you will ever see her again is to follow his directions exactly. Has she been kidnapped or has she left you? Is she in danger or are you being played the fool?
Then you come to the end of the game and the story, well, ends. Abruptly. The ending is actually clever and allows for a sequel, but you have been so hyped up by this time that this abrupt ending just makes you want to scream. I wanted to give this story an “A,” but the ending drags it down to a “B+.” Navigation The game was built using Adventure Maker. It is your classic static slide show. Navigation is accomplished with the mouse, again classic cursor changing to different arrows, magnifying glass, etc. to indicate hot spots.
The graphics make navigation more difficult than it needed to be. Unless you want to move straight ahead, you cannot see the thing you want to move to. Say you look across the room and want to go to the desk in the corner. You must move straight forward until your nose is against the wall and all you can see are paint chips. Only then can you turn to the side and move towards the desk. However, this is more the fault the graphics then of the navigation engine, so I give it a solid “B-.” Puzzles
About half of the puzzles are inventory based. Some are clever and can be solved if you think creatively. But the rest are just off the wall. For example, you need a key to unlock the cabinet. Use the piece of cheese you found in the chest and it actually works as a key. Huh? I made this up so as not to give away a solution, but the real puzzles are just as inane. There are also some basic logic puzzles. Nothing special, your standard find the combination, form the pattern. But Michael came up with a very clever idea. There are two common problems with logic puzzles: first, how do you make them fit into the story and second, how do you make them believable. I wish I had a dollar for every puzzle box I had to open whose mechanism was well beyond any known technology. Michael cleverly gets around both these plot holes by requiring the hero, you, to enter a Virtual Reality system. Since your character is in a computer game, anything is possible.
So much for closing plot holes. There was another aspect to the puzzles which I found most frustrating. You have to play the game counter-intuitively which constantly destroys any Suspension of Belief you may have acquired.
Bottom line is that most of the puzzles cannot be solved by logic alone. You will need a walkthrough and will be left wondering “How was I supposed to know to do that?” That leaves me giving the puzzles a barely passable “C-.” Graphics “Mediocre” seems to summarize it well. The scenes appear to have been made with a simple 3-D ray-tracer using stock models and textures. Everything is crisp and pristine; no dirt, stains or wear. Nothing which you could describe as organic or natural.
But the biggest problem I had with the graphics is that the perspective is mathematically perfect. While that may sound nice, the result is to give you tunnel vision. My natural eyes have peripheral vision. This is completely removed and makes it difficult to get a feel for your surroundings. To be fair, Michael did do an effective job of creating an atmosphere of dark loneliness. You can easily believe that it is late at night and that you are all alone. Unfortunately, everything else feels amateurish. Not good, but I can give graphics a passing grade of “C.” Sound The occasional music is appropriately spooky and the sound effects are done well. Nothing outstanding, but a solid “B.” Addictability
Addictability get a “C.” Conclusion This game is OK. Not great, but OK. It will pass the time until a better game becomes available. That gives it an overall rating of “C+.” Final Grade: C+ This game is available to order through the Just Adventure + Independent Developers section. System Requirements:
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